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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28982649">Desperate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/pseuds/Fairfaxleasee'>Fairfaxleasee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Nathaniel/Sloane [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Fights, Oral Sex, Vaginal Fingering, Vaginal Sex</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 09:02:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,189</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28982649</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairfaxleasee/pseuds/Fairfaxleasee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Warden Commander Cousland takes her latest fight with Nathaniel Howe in an unexpected direction, and while she definitely enjoyed it, she isn't quite sure what she thinks about it.  Or what he does.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Female Cousland/Nathaniel Howe, Nathaniel Howe/Female Warden</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Nathaniel/Sloane [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2153115</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Nobody Expects the Dragon Age Smutquisition</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Desperate</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Extra_Pickles/gifts">KittyNomsDePlume (Extra_Pickles)</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks to blondetexan and xqueen0fhellx for betaing for me.</p><p>Kitty, hope you enjoy (also you've giving me a new pairing to work with ;P)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Sloane Cousland picked up her pace as she stormed down a hallway in the Amaranthine Keep.  The fact that her pursuer just increased his own speed did nothing for her temper.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Pursuer?  Hmph!  More like annoyance.  He’s </span>
  </em>
  <span>always</span>
  <em>
    <span> been an annoyance.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Nathaniel Howe had spent most of what she could recall of their interactions since she’d met him as children chasing after her, </span>
  <em>
    <span>begging</span>
  </em>
  <span> for her attention, lodging illegitimate complaints and scurrilous accusations; and that was exactly what he was doing this time.  She’d long since stopped listening to him, interrupting whenever she felt like it to throw a ‘Shut the fuck up’ or ‘I don’t give a shit’ over her shoulder at her obnixously persistent shadow.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>When they were children, before he’d been sent to the Free Marches by his traitorous father, it was usually about how Sloane had ‘cheated’ at some game they had been playing or hadn’t given him a ‘fair’ chance in one of their sparring matches.  As if Sloane would </span>
  <em>
    <span>ever</span>
  </em>
  <span> need to stoop to cheating.  She just took advantage of certain ambiguity in the rules.  Besides, he’d made most of the rules himself; it wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> fault he hadn’t made them better.  And as for the ‘fair’ part, it was his own blighted fault that his bow took longer to ready than her daggers and that she had more than enough time to knock the skinny boy on his back before he’d lined up his first shot.  And it wasn’t like she </span>
  <em>
    <span>asked</span>
  </em>
  <span> Fergus to distract him with one of their mother’s hand mirrors.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, he wasn’t chasing her about petty childhood spats anymore.  Ever since she’d found him locked in the dungeon for trying to </span>
  <em>
    <span>break in</span>
  </em>
  <span>, she’d been subjected to an </span>
  <em>
    <span>endless</span>
  </em>
  <span> series of complaints about how she’d killed his father and invaded his home.  And the man had absolutely no regard for the facts that his precious father had killed </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> father, and mother, and sister-in-law, and nephew, and most of the servants and staff in Highever Castle while </span>
  <em>
    <span>literally</span>
  </em>
  <span> invading </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> home!  (If Nathaniel hadn’t made such a nuisance of himself, she might have been willing to concede that Rendon Howe himself hadn’t done any of the </span>
  <em>
    <span>actual</span>
  </em>
  <span> killing; he always had been too much of a sniveling coward for that.)  And as for the reason she was in what </span>
  <em>
    <span>had been</span>
  </em>
  <span> the Howe’s estate, well, he should take that up with King Alistair; she knew how much the man </span>
  <em>
    <span>enjoyed</span>
  </em>
  <span> listening to the slights of Loghain’s allies and exactly how far it would get Nathaniel.  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why didn’t I just execute him when I had the blighted chance?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>It was a question she asked herself a lot these days, usually much sooner in their exchanges.  She still had no idea, but she should probably stop dwelling on it, because she just realized she had no idea where she was </span>
  <em>
    <span>going</span>
  </em>
  <span> in her effort to shake Nathaniel.  And it would not do for her to stop and examine her surroundings to try to get her bearings.  She wasn’t entirely sure where in the Keep she was - the perils of losing one’s temper and stomping off in a random direction for an unknown period of time.  But there was a door at the end of the hallway she was in now and she had the master key.  He’d probably spend an inordinate period of time pounding at the door once she slammed it in his face before he got bored and wandered off, but it would at least annoy him that she’d gone out of sight.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She shoved the key into the hole and felt the bolt turn before she swung the door open with more force than was entirely prudent given she wanted to close it directly behind her.  She paused in annoyance as she looked around and realized that the room they were in now was the spacious office she’d had converted to her bedroom so she wouldn’t have to walk through the Keep between a bedroom and an office and risk running into Nathaniel.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Blighted git!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She turned back to the door to slam it shut, but between the force with which she’d shoved it open and the pause when she realized exactly what room they were in, Nathaniel had enough time to follow her into the room.  And had just slammed the door himself.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“The fuck are you doing?” she shouted, “Get the fuck out of my bedroom!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He glared at her, dark brows meeting over steely grey eyes, “My father’s study, you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not like he’s got much of a use for it these days, is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re trying my patience, Cousland!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yeah?  Well you’ve long since used mine, Howe!”  she reached out and shoved him in the shoulders causing him to step back to the door.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Unfortunately, he didn’t go out the blighted door like he should have.  Instead he had the </span>
  <em>
    <span>gall</span>
  </em>
  <span> to shove her back.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, that is IT, Howe; it’s ON!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She lunged for him, beyond thought or caring.  She never had trouble physically overpowering him when they were children, he may have been older and slightly taller but she’d always been stronger.  She just neglected to take into consideration that in the decade since she’d seen the… man?  She guessed he was a man now.  In the decade since she’d seen him, he’d grown at least six inches taller than her, and while he may have the same lanky frame buried somewhere, she was unable to find it under the sinuous muscles he’d acquired.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Muscles that he was currently using to overpower </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  As soon as she realized she was losing ground in the conflict, she felt a slight sense of panic and re-doubled her efforts.  The grin it provoked, lips on one side of his mouth pulling back and up to reveal just a hint of tooth,  was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>the reaction she had been hoping for.  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why do I care what he’s doing with his lips?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>The grin she was too focused on got wider as he took advantage of her distraction to push her down onto the bed hard enough that she bounced against the mattress.  She gasped in surprise.  Nathaniel, </span>
  <em>
    <span>curse him</span>
  </em>
  <span>, was not at all surprised and used the opening she’d just given him </span>
  <em>
    <span>again</span>
  </em>
  <span> to grab her wrists and pin them to the mattress above her head as he leaned over her.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She struggled against his grip as she looked up at the </span>
  <em>
    <span>damnable</span>
  </em>
  <span>, </span>
  <em>
    <span>fascinating</span>
  </em>
  <span> grin that only got wider and more enchanting as she kept struggling.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck off, Nathaniel!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t think you’re in a position to make demands… Sloane.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He leaned down closer to her so there were only inches separating their faces.  Sloane stopped struggling and, finally, started thinking.  While she would kick herself for not realizing sooner, she was obviously not going to be able to physically force him off her.  Clearly Fergus had been more help to her in their childhood fights than she remembered.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fucking</span>
  </em>
  <span> Warden Commander!  All I have to do is call for the guards and you’ll be back in the dungeon!  And just because I let you live once doesn’t mean I’ll do it again!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“True.  But is that what you want to do?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>No, that fucking isn’t what I want to do!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>And he </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> it.  She didn’t want to call the guards and get rescued; she wanted to get out of this herself!  She glared up at him.  He smirked down at her.  She shut her eyes so she could focus and think.  She was in this mess, at least in part, because she’d gone and let herself get distracted.  So, to get out of it, she’d just have to distract him.  He was still holding her wrists and leaning over her, severely limiting her options, but his </span>
  <em>
    <span>stupid</span>
  </em>
  <span>, grinning lips had gotten her into this, so they could get her out of it too.  That was a logical plan that made perfect sense and had nothing to do </span>
  <em>
    <span>at all</span>
  </em>
  <span> with her actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>liking</span>
  </em>
  <span> his lips.  </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s the matter, Sloane?  Use up all of your… colorful language and can’t find anything else to say?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She snapped her eyes open and glared at him, only to find him </span>
  <em>
    <span>grinning again</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  Well, she’d just see how long he could keep that up.  She had a bit of give from how he was holding her down that she used to lift her back off the mattress and press her lips to his.  She saw his eyes fly open in surprise as she took his lower lip between her own and ran her teeth along it as she sucked it.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He let go of her wrists.  One of his hands caressed her jaw as the other slid under her shirt and behind her back to unlace her covering.  Her hands were free, she could move them wherever she wanted, so </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span> was she wasting time running them through Nathaniel’s ebony locks?</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He broke the kiss and lifted her off the bed slightly so he could remove her shirt and covering.  Then he pushed her back down, away from him.  Someone, who could </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> have been her - despite what it sounded like - let out a moan of protest at his breaking their contact as he stripped off his own shirt.  He reached out to grab the lace tying her pants closed.  Then he </span>
  <em>
    <span>stopped</span>
  </em>
  <span> and leaned away from her.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“What…”  She could see her breasts heaving as she panted to him.  “Why did you </span>
  <em>
    <span>stop</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>The grin that started this was back, but it was more.  Better.  “Well, I was thinking </span>
  <em>
    <span>Warden Commander</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  A few minutes ago, you told me to, and I quote, ‘Fuck off.’  Now, as one of your </span>
  <em>
    <span>dutiful followers</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” he slowly untied the bow on her pants and started loosening the lace with his fingers, “I’m supposed to listen to your orders, aren’t I?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck…” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Maker,</span>
  </em>
  <span> why was she still panting, “you!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I admit to being intrigued about just how you think you'd manage to do that.  Even assuming you </span>
  <em>
    <span>could,</span>
  </em>
  <span> I can’t say I’m particularly in the mood for that at the moment.  Right now, I’d be willing to do one of two things.  So, the question I have is: do you want me to fuck off…” he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Or do you want me to fuck </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She turned towards him to take his earlobe in her mouth and suck at it.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He laughed in her ear, "I have a suspicion that's not what you want to wrap your… lips around, but it's not an answer.  Of your options, the last one you told me to do was fuck off.  And I'm not going to fuck you until you tell me you want me to.  So, unless you </span>
  <em>
    <span>do</span>
  </em>
  <span> tell me you want me to, I'm leaving."</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He leaned up and removed his fingers from her pants.  She should just let him go, that's what she wanted, right?  No, that was the </span>
  <em>
    <span>last</span>
  </em>
  <span> thing she wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>"Fuck me!  </span>
  <em>
    <span>Please</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Nathaniel!"</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>That damnable, irascible, </span>
  <em>
    <span>fascinating</span>
  </em>
  <span> grin was back.  "There, now.  Was that so hard?"</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He stepped out of his pants and kicked them aside.  She saw his partially erect cock and her thoughts became a swirl of desperation for it and fury that she was so desperate for it.  But judging by how it was growing under her gaze, he was just as desperate for her.  He yanked her pants off then pressed a hand between her legs and began massaging her clit.  She heard herself moaning </span>
  <em>
    <span>like an idiot</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but he just felt </span>
  <em>
    <span>so good</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Better keep it down, Sloane.  We wouldn’t want the guards to think you were in trouble and interrupt us, would we?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She had no response for that.  Instead, she bent her knees to bring her feet onto the mattress so she could lift her hips towards him.  He slid the finger that had been on her clit down and into her and began probing her vigiana.  She threw her head back but one of her feet slipped from beneath her.  He grabbed her other leg and pulled it down so she was flush against the mattress again.  He slid another finger inside her and was probing faster, but as good as they felt they weren’t what she wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Damn it… Nathaniel!  Stop… dawdling and </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck me</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that an order, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Commander</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“If it fucking has to be!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Desperation suits you, Sloane.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He took his fingers out of her.  She propped herself up on her elbows just to make sure he wasn’t getting any ideas about leaving.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He grinned at her again.  “Just don’t come crying to me when you’re sore tomorrow.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Like… I </span>
  <em>
    <span>would</span>
  </em>
  <span>!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m tempted to take that as a challenge, but I’d rather we both enjoy this.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He grabbed her hips again and slid into her.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah!”  She threw her head back as she stretched to accommodate him.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Regretting our impatience?”  She couldn’t see his face, but could hear the grin in his words.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Ne… ver!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He chuckled, a low sound she almost missed, then began to thrust.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah… hah… </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Nathaniel!”  She could hear the desperation drip from her words.  Why, </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span>, was this so right?  She thought she heard him say something, but had no idea what it was.  The only thing she could focus on anymore was his cock inside her.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>But then he stopped and took it out.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She propped herself up on the bed so she could glare at him.  “What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span> do you think you’re doing?”  Judging by his throbbing cock, he hadn’t cum yet and she </span>
  <em>
    <span>certainly</span>
  </em>
  <span> hadn’t, so she had no idea what the man thought he was doing </span>
  <em>
    <span>stopping</span>
  </em>
  <span>!</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“You finish me, Sloane; and I’ll finish you.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Bastard!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought we’d be past these petty insults.  But if you’re done…”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She absolutely was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> done and he </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew it</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  She pushed herself up so she was sitting on the bed and reached out to him.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” he grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his cock.  “With your mouth.  I want to feel what that clever tongue of yours can do.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He was kneeling on the bed and clearly had no intention of moving.  The only way she’d be able to do what he was asking would be for her to get on her hands and knees in front of him.  She was </span>
  <em>
    <span>furious</span>
  </em>
  <span> at herself that she was already moving to do it.  She shot him one last glare from her prone position as he </span>
  <em>
    <span>kept grinning</span>
  </em>
  <span> down at her.   Then she closed her lips over his cock and began to suck.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you taste it, Sloane?  Just how much you wanted this?  Your beautiful desperation?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She couldn’t answer with her mouth full of him.  She didn’t know how she would answer anyway.  She reached between her legs to stroke herself as she sucked.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“None of that now… it’s not your turn yet.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She was a bit surprised that he didn’t grab her hand again, but she clenched her fist and brought it back to the mattress as she kept sucking.  She could taste something salty begin to mix with the earthy taste of herself and he was starting to twitch.  She felt him grab her hair to hold her in place.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Stay… there.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She stopped running her tongue along the head of his cock and took as much of him into her mouth as she could.  She wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to hold him there, but she felt his cum run down her throat before the fact that she needed to breathe became an issue.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Good job… Sloane.  Now, it’s your turn.”  He grabbed her shoulders and pushed her back to lean on the headboard.  He rubbed one hand along her jaw as he reached down with the other.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, but I thought…”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh no, Sloane.  I want to watch you cum.  I want to see exactly what I’m doing to you.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I… okay.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He smiled at her.  It was a much softer expression than the grin from before.  She wasn’t sure what she thought about it.  Fortunately, she didn’t have time to dwell on it because his fingers were inside her again, probing, rubbing, as he pressed his thumb against her clit and ran it in small circles.  She could feel his eyes on her the entire time and knew he was remembering every sound she made, every twitch and tiny motion.  She’d never felt this exposed to anyone and it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>exhilarating</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  She threw her head back as she came screaming his name.  She felt him take his fingers out and looked back at him in time to see him wipe them on her bedding and push away from the headboard to leave the bed.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“I… wait!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t answer or look at her as he set about finding his clothes.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Nathaniel!  Are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>leaving</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t say anything, but the fact that he was half-dressed again made the answer fairly obvious.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this… was that it?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He turned further away from her.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Does this change anything?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He opened the door and walked out.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>--------------------------------</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Sloane sat at her desk with her head in her hands.  She was trying, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>failing</span>
  </em>
  <span>, to accomplish </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  She was in her robe reviewing… some document or other.  It was supposed to be important, but she had no </span>
  <em>
    <span>idea</span>
  </em>
  <span> what was written on the page in front of her.  After what had happened with Nathaniel the previous night, she’d been useless the </span>
  <em>
    <span>entire day</span>
  </em>
  <span>.  She kept looking at him, jealous that his fingers were playing with his </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn bow</span>
  </em>
  <span> as she wondered whether they’d ever play with </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span> again.  The closest thing to anything she’d actually done was supervise as Anders did push-ups and Oghren copied lines after she’d overheard them discussing how they thought she could do with a good fucking.  She really needed to do something about those idiots… </span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She straightened as she heard the door open.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I know you’ve been distracted, but I thought you’d remember to lock the door, Sloane.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Obviously not, seeing as you tried it anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Nathaniel reached around her and she saw he was holding her master key in front of her face.  She watched as he reached down and put it on the desk.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like I won’t be needing it after all.”  He brought his hand back towards her and ran it along her jaw.  “Do you want me to leave?”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>“No!”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>He slid his hand down her chest and she felt him whisper in her ear, “Still so beautifully desperate.”  She reached behind her to run her hands through his hair.  His fingers were teasing around her opening as he growled, “Bed.”</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>She got up and he used the hand that didn’t have fingers probing inside her to yank off her robe and toss it aside.</span>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>
  <span>As she stumbled to the bed, she realized she wasn’t sure why she’d bothered asking him those last two questions.  The previous night was never going to have been it.  And it had changed </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
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